"Over here!" Michael shouted from above. "Bring it over here!"
Mave caught his voice, running closer to his direction.
The root giant was visibly agitated, rampaging through his room and stepping over the dead fleas. Once it was at the perfect spot, he jumped.
Michael barely made it onto the root giant's back, hanging on one of the vines by dear life. He gritted his teeth and climbed to his sword while being swung around. Did the root giant already feel the human on its back? He drowned away the yells from the adventurers below and grabbed hold one of the roots on its nape. With that, he reached over and gripped his ego sword.
The root giant immediately reacted, stumbling its body around to the reactivation of the ego sword's bond.
Michael's ego sword immediately glowed, stirring around the mana inside the root giant's body. He pressed his feet against its nape and held tight.
"Attack!" he yelled his hoarse voice out loud. "Attack this piece of—"
The root giant slammed its body into one of the walls, sending sharp painful tremors through his back. But Michael kept his tight hold around his ego sword. His arms were feeling numb and his breaths dragged by the second. The roots wrapping around the root giant's body came apart as it damaged itself by trying to throw off the pesky human.
Hoss was the first to charge, pulling his greatsword away from its heel and struck again. It was like he had found gold by how much his face lit up. The cut had not only gone deeper but had seeped some sort of liquid sap, almost as if the root giant was bleeding.
The other adventurers followed, having their turn stabbing and slashing away the weak roots that fell off of its legs.
The root giant kept stomping away, reaching around its head to grab Michael again. But its arm flinched in pain, studying the arrows spiking underneath. Small drops of sap began to leak from them.
It knew why its magic wasn't working anymore, it knew why these humans suddenly became more aggressive, it knew exactly the reason why Michael was stuck on its nape.
Michael didn't know how long he was holding on for. He pushed his sword deeper for better leverage but it didn't stop the root giant from moving. Are they even attacking it from below? He couldn't tell because of how much this thing was spinning around. Apart from the dizziness and his heavy head, the only thing he could focus on was holding this sword so the bond wouldn't break again.
The root giant started to back pedal at an alarming pace. What was it doing, Michael wondered, is it stupid?
He turned around and saw the incoming wall approach him at top speed. He slammed onto the wall along with the root giant. For a second, the world had gone dark and he couldn't feel anything. The grip on his sword began to slip and the yells from the adventurers quieted down. Everything just felt so terribly relaxing. He started to fall asleep.
Wake up, the voice rang in his head, Michael! Wake up!
Michael's eyes flared open as he clutched his sword again with all of his remaining strength. He couldn't see, not from one of his eyes to say the least. But he still held onto his sword with his body dangling through the air. He couldn't break the bond. If he was gone, then there was no absolute way to kill this root giant without him. He needed to keep fighting and hold out for the rest of the party to take it down.
The voice in his head continuously rang. She was keeping him awake. He couldn't focus on anything but her voice. His right arm burned from holding on for so long. His head felt weightless and his body ached in pain. He could have been covered in his own blood and would've never known.
Michael clenched his teeth and sucked back his cries. He pulled himself back up and pressed his legs on the root giant's nape again. He yelled, holding his ego sword tighter than before.
The root giant's nape bursted in some oily sap. It tasted horrible and smelled even worse but he still held on. The roots that had been wrapped around it for protection had completely come off, revealing a naked body of thin roots almost like strands of muscle tissue.
The adventurers below continued to hack its legs, over and over, until it finally toppled over to the ground and everybody spared no remorse. Mave slashed at its bare neck, Hoss chopped with his greatsword from the other side, Dean and Jule stabbed their swords into its head, and Ellis tore his dagger through one of its eyes.
After the root giant stopped moving, they finally declared it was dead. They all looked up to the one boy standing over its body.
Michael rose from its nape and plucked his ego sword. His body was splattered in flea blood and sap from the root giant. His breaths were unsteady and his eyes barely open.
He remembered the world turning upside down. Not after the look that everyone gave him as he stood over the root giant, though it was unexplainable. He thought all of their faces were blurry and couldn't tell who was who. He just felt so desperately tired.
***
Michael woke up to his body being bumped. He was in the back of a wagon on the road. It was dark, cold, but they were away from the smell of that underground temple. His breaths were certainly easier than before. He even felt grateful inhaling the outside air again.
Ellis hovered over him. "You awake?"
Michael continued to stare at the sky. His head and body was heavily wrapped in bandages because he wouldn't stop bleeding. His shirt was somehow missing though he didn't ask why. Mave was sitting across with her feet propped while Ellis and Stefan sat in the front. Neither Mave or Ellis had any major injuries but they had enough tape to close their cuts.
Stefan looked over to him. "How do you feel, kid, all good?"
He slowly sat up. "My sword—"
They all pointed to his sword beside him. It was like they knew he would ask the question the moment he would talk.
Michael placed his sword on his lap. "What…happened?"
"We won." Ellis said. "That mana beast and its roots was the only thing keeping the place together, so when it died, it all came down."
"What about Jule, and her party?"
Ellis gestured behind them. There was another wagon being pulled by horses, carrying the other party. A faint blue lantern floated above them.
Dean and Hoss kept to the reins while Jule tended to Ari's wounds. A mere salve wouldn't be able to heal his burns so their party needed better medical attention. They could only try to numb his pain but that silent agony he's been going through, none of them were comfortable riding him all the way back. Ellis said they were heading to the nearest town for some help before they would return to Aldoria.
"It's a little bit scary," Ellis continued. "Two mana beasts in one nest, that's supposed to be impossible. They're extremely territorial, even chasing another species just because they don't belong. I don't know but…that root giant and fleas must have formed some type of symbiotic relationship. I never knew mana beasts could communicate that deep."
"The fleas help kill humans," Mave added, wiping her nose. "Then they drag their bodies and share the spoils with the root giant. In return, the root giant gives them a place to stay."
"Fleas?" Stefan raised his eyebrow. "What's that?"
"You don't want to know."
"It sounds like I definitely want to know."
"Michael," Ellis called. "When you stabbed your sword inside the root giant, did you know you would nullify its magic just from that?"
Michael slowly nodded.
Ellis shot a glance at Stefan. "Not only are you absolutely immune to spells, you can disrupt someone's magic with your sword. Where did you find that—"
"Let him be," Stefan waved. "He looks like he's been through hell."
Ellis wanted to ask more questions but looking at how roughed up Michael was, he decided to turn his attention around to the front.
Michael still thought his body ached in pain even if the outside calmed down his nerves. He didn't feel like answering any more questions about Evelyn nor did he intend on staying awake.
He leaned against the seats of the wagon, staring into the night sky of stars. Without his daring act to jump onto the root giant, none of them would've escaped alive in that underground. Mave didn't look concerned as them but he knew she probably worried about him. Maybe it was his tired thoughts being stretched again, maybe it was his arrogance playing around because he pulled off something crazy like that.
Even so, Michael had saved their quest with his magical sword. It made him admittedly happy, having his party rely on him more. Was it Michael himself that was responsible for slaying the root giant? Or was it his magical sword the reason for their success? Either way, he played a dangerous game and was lucky enough none of it went south.
The voice in his head wasn't yelling at him either. Usually she would cry about how close he's been brushing with death. Shrugging it off, his eyes felt heavy as he drifted back to sleep.
Everything was bound to hurt in the morning.